1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an improved data processing system and in particular to a method and apparatus for generating cohorts. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for generating a predilection cohort and identifying a predilection score for the predilection cohort.
2. Description of the Related Art
A predilection is the tendency or inclination to take an action or refrain from taking an action. A cohort is a group of people, animals, plants, places, or objects that share a common attribute or experience. For example, a group of people born in 1980 may form a birth cohort. A cohort may include one or more sub-cohorts. For example, the birth cohort of people born in 1980 may include a sub-cohort of people born in 1980 in Salt Lake City, Utah. A sub-sub-cohort may include people born in 1980 in Salt Lake City, Utah to low income, single parent households.
Cohorts are frequently generated based on one or more attributes of the members of each cohort. The information used to identify the attributes of members of a cohort is typically provided by the members of the cohort. However, information describing attributes of members of a cohort may be voluminous, dynamically changing, unavailable, difficult to collect, and/or unknown to the member of the cohort and/or the user selecting members of a cohort. Moreover, it may be difficult, time consuming, or impractical for an individual to access all the information necessary to accurately generate cohorts. Thus, unique cohorts may be sub-optimal because individuals lack the skills, time, knowledge, and/or expertise needed to gather cohort attribute information from available sources.